1. Technical Field
The present application relates generally to data processing system communications. More specifically, the present application is directed to validating physical and logical system connectivity of components in a data processing system.
2. Description of Related Art
Large scale rack mounted data processing systems, such as enterprise class data processing systems, require numerous cables to interconnect the various elements of the system together. For instance, a relatively small system may contain over a hundred cables while higher-end systems may contain thousands of cables. Not only is the routing of cables difficult, it is also very expensive, provides many failure points, and requires stocking of numerous field replaceable units. As systems grow, so does the cabling, especially in redundant systems where there is often a need for tow cables for the power and communication connections per element (to handle the high failure rates inherent to a mechanical design). In other words, for each element, there is a primary power cable, a redundant power cable, a primary communication cable, and a redundant communication cable. Thus, a system of eight elements may require 32 cables. Additionally, more complexity and cost is incurred because using primary and redundant communications requires a separate interconnect attachment structure such as a switch.
As stated previously, cable routing is difficult, provides failure points in the system, etc. These problems are increased with larger systems requiring even more cabling. Additionally, larger systems that require even more cabling also provide more instances where cabling may be installed improperly. Therefore, a need exists to identify the components that exist within a data processing system and validate that the components within the data processing system are physically and logically cabled correctly for functional interfaces, such as fibre channel (FC), Serial Attached SCSI (SAS), power, and the like.